PatrickDiCaprio.com

After training broke for the day, we headed over to the Rio for some dinner. Like most buffets in Vegas, the place was huge. I had my fill and then hit up the casino floor. We were all heading to the Penn and Teller show, but that still left me with an hour to kill. I played a little bit of roulette with no luck so I headed over to another table game that some of the guys were playing.

The game was 3-5-7 Poker. If you’ve never played, which I hadn’t, the game is quite simple. You are dealt 3 cards. The dealer then deals 4 community cards. Your goal is to assemble a hand based on the 3, 5, or 7 card setup that you show. You have the option to bet on each of the 3 hands before the cards are dealt and each hand level has different payouts. The 3 card has the fewest number of payouts as there are less possible hands, ranging from a pair paying 1 to 1 to a 3 card straight flush paying 40 to 1. The 5 card had the highest payouts for regular hands starting at a pair of sixes or better and they make it a bit harder to win on the 7 card need two pair with one pair being at least 10’s or better. It looks like the 3 card bet looked like where the casino would make all their money.

I sat down and decided to play the minimum $10 on all 3 bets. I know that the house has the edge, but I like to think that playing them gives you a better chance at a short term winning streak. It payed off as on my second hand I hit a 3 card straight flush and walked away from the table up a little over $400.

The Penn and Teller show afterwards was interesting. I didn’t know what to expect really walking in. The show is a mix of magic and comedy. There was a lot of crowd interaction as well. What I liked about the show was on many of the tricks, they would do the trick and then do it again showing you how it was done from setup to execution. Nothing was overly complex but it was all stuff that the average person would never be able to do without significant practice. They finished with their well known Magic Bullet trick, but of course did not explain that one as they want you to leave wondering about something.

I headed back to the Hard Rock after the show as I was happy with my take at the Rio. The place was jamming. I sat down at the Hold ‘em Bonus table for about an hour and walked away about even before calling it a night. To get to the elevator I had to walk by the high rollers area and to my surprise as I did, the legendary Doyle Brunson was walking out. In fact, I got to share an elevator with him on the way up to my room. I had a brief conversation with him about nothing really and shook his hand before getting off the elevator. I had heard rumor he was staying there, but it was pretty cool to meet one of the greats.

Today was the first day of the training I am actually here for. How dare it get in the way of my fun. The morning session wasn’t bad, but the afternoon may have been the longest 3 hours of my life. Between the extremely dry material and the casino floor beckoning, it was almost painful to sit there all afternoon.

When we broke a little before 5, I walked down to the Planet Hollywood casino as we had dinner reservations at P. F. Chang’s. Played a little roulette and made a quick $30 while I was waiting and then had a great dinner.

Afterwards I sat down for my first actual poker session of the week: $1/$2 no limit with a $200 maximum buy in. I sat down with the max and was quite happy with my play over the first hour. As this was a small room on the strip, it attracted a lot of inexperienced players and not many with much skill at all. I made a few strong plays and made a couple solid hands to more than double me up in that first hour. I was second highest stack at the table, the big stack seemed to have been there for a while and definitely had me covered. I hadn’t really tangoed with him at this point as we were both just praying on the weaker players.

That all changed the hand I was dealt Ace/King of Hearts. I was on the big blind with about $420 in front of me, the big stack on the button. When it got to my option, 7 players had called the $2 big blind so I raised to $20 to clear out the weak. 3 players, including the big stack called. The flop is dealt and comes up Queen, Eight, Two, all Hearts. The nut flush. A gold mine. I’m the first to act and quietly check. It checks around to the big stack and he throws a bet of $25 down. I mull it over, and reluctantly call. No reason to push yet as I have the nuts. Both other players call.

3 players to the turn and it comes up with the Ten of Hearts. I again check. The player to my left checks. The big stack throws down a bet of $75. I again mull it over, but this time raise to $150. The small stack in the hand moves all in with $126, the big stacks calls my raise.

The river. Just me and the big stack left. The dealer shows the Seven of Hearts. I check. I really like where I’m sitting. The big stack probable has the Jack giving him a higher flush than on the board. The big stack bets $100, I immediately go all in and he immediately calls that. I’m anxiously waiting for my made hand to pull in the pot that was now around $1100 total.

The small stack flips his cards and shows the Jack of Hearts. I show my Ace/King and the nut flush. I look at the big stack and he flips over Six/Nine of hearts. Straight flush to the Ten. I just stared on in awe. My made hand was cracked. What are the odds? Knowing better I congratulated the player and left the table. I knew if I kept playing it would be on tilt so I just walked back to my hotel to blow off the shock of losing.

That was by far is the worst bad beat I have ever had in poker.

Well I guess the story starts the day before actually. I was trying to pack for the trip Sunday night and had a load of laundry in the washer when I found that my sewer had backed up. I attempted to snake it for about 2 hours when it was deemed by my father and I that it was a lost cause. So not only was I behind 2 hours, but I had to run to my parents in order to shower. Luckily my roommate was home Monday so she was able to call Roto Rooter on my behalf.

So after a few short hours of sleep, I stumbled out of bed, into my car and drove to Bradley. I made it through security flawlessly, had some breakfast and then sat around and waited for my flight. It was my first time flying Southwest and I was thoroughly not impressed. I didn’t really mind the no assigned seat thing as I was there early enough to get a decent seat. However, the seats were on the small side, there was no in flight movie and the only food was small snacks that no where near cut it. Not for a 6 hour flight anyways. To make matters worse, I forgot my iPod on the charger at home. I slept for a little bit at the start of the flight and then ended up reading the book I brought with me, 2/3 of it actually.

I landed, met up with the 2 guys I was carpooling with and headed over to the hotel. The Hard Rock is gorgeous, minus the massive construction and expansion going on. I really like the simple layout of the casino and it may have one of the most beautiful pool setups ever. Not to mention the girls. I saw more attractive women in one day at this hotel than my 4 years of college, most of them tracking around the place in their bikini’s.

We couldn’t check in yet as it was only 11 AM, so we left our bags at the bell desk and took a cab over to Caesar’s Palace for some lunch. The architecture of the place was beautiful and the food was even better. We then spent a few hours walking the strip, wandering in and out of everything that looked of interest. I saw most of the casino’s I wanted to in one shot really: Caesar’s, Treasure Island, the Mirage, the Wynn, the Venetian, the Flamingo, Planet Hollywood and the MGM Grand.

I got back to the hotel around 3, checked in, freshened up and headed down for happy hour. I was pretty beat so I decided instead of starting my poker journey tonight, I would just hang around the Hard Rock for the night. I had a good time hanging out with a bunch of the Fuji engineers, got pretty buzzed and won a few bucks playing some table games. I called it a night around 10, which made it about a 21 hour day considering I had been up since 3:30 EST.

So a few hours after my last post, after watching the news of the hurricane in the bar while I was eating lunch, I ventured over to the terminal of the airline I was supposed to fly to Cuba on. They informed me that as of 6:00 PM, the base was shutting down and no planes would be allowed to land. The canceled flight was music to my ears, as I wasn’t really looking forward to flying to a place that was about to get hit by the outskirts of a hurricane.

Since there was no telling when the base might reopen, there was no point in hanging around. After waiting on hold for well over an hour with the travel company, I got fed up and went to the Delta counter to manually change my reservation. I luckily got the 2nd to last seat on the next direct flight back to Hartford the next morning. At this point I began calling for a hotel room. The 14th hotel I called finally had an available room. I took a cab over, found the one restaurant within walking and wandered the attached Outdoor World. If I was a redneck fisherman/hunter that is where I would spend my weekends hanging out. I got back to the hotel and passed out around 8 sleeping right through to 8 AM the next morning. I was up for almost 24 hours and totally spent at that point. After an uncomfortable flight home, I made in back safe and sound to Derby around 4 PM on Sunday.

Talk about a wasted weekend. I think I have learned my lesson about saying yes to field work.

So for those of you that didn’t know, work decided to send me to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba to install some equipment. Many of my friends and family have asked me to keep them updated on the trip so I figure this would be the easiest way. I’m not actually in Cuba yet, but I am stuck in the Fort Lauderdale Airport for another 5 hours, so I figured it would be a good time to start.

I left for the airport around 5 this morning, making good time and getting there right after 6. This was a good thing as it took me over an hour to get through security. I then realized the airport really is an odd place. If I went into detail about all the strange things I have seen so far today, I probably could fill most of my layover, but I do need to eat something I guess.

I sat down for a quick bite at McDonald’s (which was actually cheaper at the airport than at home, go figure). Sitting at the table across from me was a man who looked identical to Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn it was him, but I highly doubt that he would be at an airport between yesterday’s double header and tonight’s game. The resemblance was amazing. He had a shaved head, the goatee fro and even similar sunglasses. To top it off, when he got up he put on a Sox hat.

When I got to the gate, the girl at the counter made an announcement that they were looking for people to fill the emergency isles. I thought this was odd as those are usually the first seats to go. What was even odder was that the girl at the counter laughed at my joke when I walked up and said “Yes, I’d like more leg room.”

The flight went well from there, although I couldn’t fall asleep like I wanted too. Hopefully I will do better on the next one. I did make a few realizations in my travels so far today:

1.) Wearing a shirt with a logo is a great way to strike up random conversation. I have a Red Sox shirt on and as a result I have had 3 pretty good baseball conversations as a result. It’s a great way to meet people and kill time while traveling.

2.) I have decide I want to be an airline pilot. Not to fly planes, but to automatically move to the front of the line everywhere I go. I mean it works in the airport, so if should work in amusement parks right?

That’s all for now, lunch is calling my name. More once I’m on the other side.